December 21, 2003

Going to Bali

I have had a really relaxed week in Taiwan. Mostly just hung out in the hostel since it has been cold here.. I did make it out to Toroko Gorge for a couple days. First day did an insane hike with two young guys from Minnesota. We gained 2500ft in 1 and 1/2 hours! Ended up being about 11 or 12 miles in a bit over 4 hours. At 6pm, I lay down on my bed to rest my tired feet for a few minutes and woke up at 4:30am.. so put my hiking boots back on and did a 1 mile hike to some hotsprings... amazing sunrise!

I'm now at the Taipe airport typing on my PDA over an open wireless network and have just gotten the go ahead to get on the plane to Thailand... I'll spend a night in the airport hotel then continue to Bali in the AM so I'll send my next update from Indonesia!

Peace,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 04:47 AM | Comments (1)

December 15, 2003

Road Warrior

I had a lovely time in Boulder, and visiting my mum in Albuquerque. Got my 2002 taxes squared away, saw lots of friends, danced, went to men's group, enjoyed being home :) yay! I arrived back in Taiwan this morning, after a pretty grewling (time/routing wise) trip from Albuquerque. About 23 hours flying and about 31 hours total travel time... Shesh... one flight LA to Hong Kong was 14.5 hours! Strange routing Albuquerque to Dallas to LA (go figure)... then LA to Hong Kong and back to Taipei... But it was cheap and the comfortable...

I'm planning on hanging here until the 21st. Will probably head down to Toroko Gorge for a few days before heading out. On the 21st, I'm flying to Bali through Bangkok... I'm planning on a couple weeks in Bali then back to Bangkok to hang with Jess and Wade... hope to dive the Similans with the crew from New Way (now working for Coral Grand in Khao Lak) that I learned to dive with! YAY!!!

Hope everyone is well!

Peace,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 02:13 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2003

Kenting to Boulder

So in just under two days, I made it from the SCUBA diving at the beach in Southern Taiwan to walking around chilly Boulder, Colorado... No problems at immigration. Wonderfull place to stay here in town. Walked around the hill (university area) last night before bed. Then hit the Dushanbe Tea House for breakfast and then walked around the Pearl St. mall.. Had to goto the Army store for gloves... damn it's cold here! Just wanted to send out an update, to let everyone know that I made it :) I'm heading back to Taiwan on the 13th of Dec, so should have plenty of time to sort out Taxes and visit friends etc here... Yay!!!

Posted by binduwavell at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2003

Ouch!

Ooops... Apparently I have to be back in the US before Nov 28th... If not, I'll loose my resident alien status (Green Card). I figured this out at 3pm on Nov 25th on the very south end of Taiwan. I'm now set to arrive in Denver on the evening of the 27th. I'm planning on staying in Denver for a bit over a week, then heading to Albuquerque for a few days to visit my mum before heading back to Taiwan. I'll have a week in Taiwan to finish my interrupted tour here, then I'll be going to Bali to spend Christmas with my brother Wade.

So that's the present. I spent my first few weeks in Taiwan with a cold and then looking for teaching work alternatively. I also did lots of exploring the city. There are lots of really cool night markets, great food, good museums, friendly people, excellent local transportation. Taipei is really quite a cool city (dirt and all :) Once I finally found work, I realized that I didn't really want to spend 6 months here so I gave up on teaching and headed out for a tour of the Island.

My first stop was Alishan for some great hiking, some good tea, a really lovely train ride up the mountains, sunrise hike...

From Alishan I headed down the mountains to Kenting (pronounced Kun-ding) which is on the far south of Taiwan. I stayed in a hostel in a Catholic Church... First few days with a couple nice guys (one from Italy, one from Mexico.) Then had a few days on my own in the dorm... Did some diving, lots of reading Gibson in Starbucks :) walking on the beach... was really relaxing until yesterday afternoon, when I happened to check the Department of Homeland Security... I mean immigration website... for Green Card requirements. It used to be that you could stay out for 2 years... still can if you apply for a permit BEFORE leaving the states... Yikes...

BTW, the diving in Taiwan was nice. Not many fish and most of them small, but quite a few I haven't seen before... Cool trumpet fish, puffers, jet black triggers, lots I don't know the name/type of... Mostly it was really nice just being back in the water... Most of the rest of my trip is dedicated to diving, which I'm totally psyched about!

Hope to see some of you soon :)


Loads of Love,

-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2003

Yo-Yo Taipei

I have been in Taiwan for almost a week already. I'm staying at the Taipei Hostel. Which is a bit run-down, but has a great central location and free internet if you have your own computer (they are threatening to impose a reasonable charge)! Yay. Before I go into too much detail about Taiwan, I feel that I should post a bit more about Japan.

I had a really nice time in Kyoto, visited lots of temples and gardens (will post pictures soon). Unfortunately I didn't get quite as gob-smaked by the sights in Kyoto as I did by the ones in Kamakura, but still really enjoyed walking all over the city. I especially liked discovering unexpected sights while walking. I met some really great people at the hostel and participated in LOADS of tea ceremonies. I tried staying in a Japanese style hotel, but it wasn't very Japanese (the only thing that the great tourist office in Kyoto got way wrong.) I also stayed for a huge parade/festival, loads of folks dressed-up in traditional clothes. The costumes were amazing, I'll post pictures.

My first impression of the people in Japan is that they are not very friendly (esp. compared to China.) However, once I actually met some locals (much harder in Japan than in China) they are really lovely and very genuine! One of the guests at the hostel made the comment that Japanese people don't seem to be connected with things "outside" themselves, but have a tremendous amount of time/energy for the internal. This seems to hold for friendships as well as for personal space (many buildings look quite ugly on the outside, but inside they are gorgeous!!!)

The flight to Taiwan was easy, as was the bus from the airport to the hostel. I have done a little roaming around here. Mostly walking, which is very easy here, although the distances are a bit much. The underground here is fantastic, so that helps quite a bit at the end of a long day walking. My first impression of Taiwan is that it is a dirtier China... After being here a few days, I have also noticed that it is MUCH easier to communicate with folks here.

I have visited a couple of night markets, and electronics markets (I love browsing.) Also been to see the Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) Memorial, which looks like it would be amazing, except that it's completely covered in scafolding. The gardens around it are realy nice. As is the National Palace Museum, which has the largest collection of Chinese art in the world. As museums go, it wasn't quite as nice as the Shanghai Museum, but they did have some really amazing things on display (I especially liked some of the more recent china.)

Yesterday, I tried to get a ticket to see a Yo-Yo Ma concert, but they were "sold out". They broadcast the whole concert just outside the National Theater for free, so I had a great time watching/listening/socializing. And the whole band (Yo-Yo and a bunch of South American muscicians) came out after the concert and did a big charity speil with Mercedes... They performed some live music too, which was quite nice! I put "sold out" in quotes, because I could see plenty of empty seats on the video feed... Maybe they were sold, but folks didn't show, or maybe the ticket agent thought I looked a little rought for something as posh as this concert... Who knows, I would have loved to hear more of them live (rather than through the PA system outside.) Sitting on the ground with tons of Taipei-ites was a pretty great experience anyway, so I'm not complaining.

Posted by binduwavell at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2003

Goodbye Japan, Hello Taiwan

I have had a very full two weeks in Japan and am now heading to Taiwan. Just wanted to post this brief note so folks know where I'm at. Will post more about Japan from Taipe.

Peace!

Posted by binduwavell at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2003

Amazing Zen!

Thank you Nanda! After a really crappy morning I followed my dear friend, Nanda's advice, and took the train out to Kamakura. Actually I went to Kiti-Kamakura which is just north of town and walked through several really lovely Zen monestaries into town. Since India I have been craving sacred places that feel sacred to me... I struck out in Thailand, Laos and China. Japan, however, came through twice in one day! I don't think I could do either place justice. Very roughly then, they were both very green "parks" with lovely temples and lots of hidden grave/shrines. The most wonderfull Buddha statue I have ever seen, the scent of burning leaves and fresh oriental lillies, lots of moss and just enough flowers to be delightfull without being gaudy (sp?). Lovely old japanese architecture, amazing inscense, bamboo in the most unlikely and lovely places, very tall old trees creaking away at eachother, dusk... Lovely!!!!

Not sure where to go from there so I'm gonna head back to yesterday. I spent the mornin back in the electronics district, got bored quickly and headed north to a lovely Japanese garden. Had lunch in a neigborhood noodle shop. Finally found the garden, had a great walk (millions of pics to post). Then headed off walking for a chinese garden, but bumped into a Tea/Cake shop and got stuck for 2 hours chatting with the proprietor... Found out that I actually really like Japanese Tea, I just had never had it prepared properly. Not a very full day,
but quite enjoyable none the less.

This morning I did my laundry and managed to wash my passport, Thaiwan visa and Thaiwan airline ticket! I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this, but I still felt like a pill. Then I went to the Sumo center to see if I could get a peek at the guys practicing, but no luck. I checked out the Edo-Tokyo museum which wasn't bad, but wasn't really good eaither.. After a slight false start I headed off for Kamakura with the results described above.

After visiting the monestaries, I walked into town. There was a very small sidewalk and quite a lot of traffic whizzing by, but I was so engrossed in all the little nooks where people plant things and put beautifull objects that I hardly noticed. One really lovely site was a staircase leading up to a house that was framed on both sides with lovely puple flowers and overhung with an apricot tree. The tree was bare except where it hung over the entry (after the fact I realized that this was almost definatley intentional, as it was very striking) there were at least 20 lovely apricots on the trea... The smell was delightfull, they view was diving ;) Another interesting vista along the road was a "tunnel" with "skylights"... Similar effect to a tree lined street where the trees create a complete canopy over the road... letting some light through... I think it was there as a security measure in case the cliff walls on either side of the road crumbled, because there was nothing on top of the tunnel... I'm finding this very hard to describe so I'll stop there... I enjoyed it as a piece of architecture...

The town proper is really very nice, lots of gorgeous stores! I wanted to buy so much stuff, insense, dishes, tea pots, boxes, baskets, shoes, fans, amazing No masks, jewlery... In anycase it was delightfull looking at lots of lovely things that didn't feel at all mass produced!

Before I got to town I had seen several lovely looking restaurants, but wasn't hungry yet so I kept on. By the time I was near the trainstation to leave I was finally feeling hungry, I was delighted to find a really good and cheap Sushi restaurant (half the price of Sushi at home!)

So even though I'm gonna have to goto the airline and replace my ticket before leaving Japan and I'll probably need to get a new passport (it's still usable, just very damaged), I feel like the day was a major success!

Loads of love to you all!

Posted by binduwavell at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2003

Hello Japan!

Well, I've been in Tokyo just under 24 hours. It's quite a culture shock and sticker shock, but really nice (big city and all). Yesterday and today have both been very crisp, first time I've worn my sweater since leaving England. I'm sure glad I carried half way round the world :) I'm staying in a dorm room in a Youth Hostel for $30 a night. It's very clean and friendly and at the moment. I think it would also be quiet except that there are about a million teanage australian girls prancing around the place. I think they're here for some sort of dance festival/training. I have my priorities straight so I have been roaming around the electronics district. It's infinately nicer than the same districts in Delhi and Bangkok! Unfortnately prices are not great... They weren't in Delhi, Bangkok or Hong Kong either... I managed to blow up the battery charger for my camera so I'm trying to sort that out... Anyway, just wanted to write a quick note to let you all know that I've arrived in Japan and to express some of my initial impressions.

Love to you all!

Posted by binduwavell at 09:14 PM | Comments (3)

October 02, 2003

Photos Galore!

Just uploaded TONS of photos!

Two new galleries from Laos.

And nine galleries from China.

Posted by binduwavell at 04:43 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2003

Hangzhou and Li Shui

From WuYi Shan I had a really horrible night train ride to Hangzhou. Was a night train and I was issued a standing ticket! Yikes... Sat several different places, but ended up in the food carriage... I may have slept for an hour or so on the 14 hour journey... Watching the sunrise over really lovely mountains and fields was a bit of recompense...

But the real treat was one night in a REALLY nice hotel (most hotels would have charged two days since I checked in at 7am) so it wasn't terribly expensive for one day/night even got two breakfasts with cornflakes out of the deal :)

In the afternoon I went for a walk around West Lake which is very famous around China. It's really lovely even though it's prety developed. Along the way I met a Chinese guy (Allen is his English name) and his "Sister" (Candy is her English name)... we walked and talked for a while and then had dinner. Allen is quite an amazing man. He is a Bilogigy teach in the North East of China. He had two weeks off work and was in town visiting his "sister"... His American (I would say English, except he speaks American :) is exceptional. It's really hard for me to understand how someone could develop such an amazing vocabulary and ease with a language without having spoken with foriegners more than a handfull of times. Anyway, they invited me to Li Shui to stay with Candy's family for a few days. What an absolutely amazing experience! I spent the afternoon of my second day in Hangzhou in Candy's shop, wich is a sports clothing shop in a huge building full of mostly Shoe stores... Then we took the bus (3 hours) to Li Shui.

Candy's hubby, Da Liang (means big Liang, which is his family name), was at the bus station to meet us with their car, which we had to push start because they were having problems with the battery. We went out to dinner with some school friends of Candy's. Allen convinced me to try Cicadas (sp?) looked like beatles... Was hard to eat the first one, but easy to eat the send, third, fourth, etc :) The restaurant was very sparse dirty concrete with plastic tables and chairs, on the edge of a really lovely little lake with neon animal signs all over the place :) We had some spectacular fish!

The chinese way of eating is really great. You have a big stew in the middle of the table and lots of dishes that everyone shares. Then there is the drinking. Lots and lots of drinking. Mostly ale.. You make as if to knock glasses with someone except you just touch your knuckles, you say "Gambe" and shoot the whole glass. Then fill it and go again... Generally you don't take a sip without engaging someone in this ritual... And you can't say no! At leat it's not poilite although, very luckily I received some leeway on this point as a foriegner...

After dinner we stopped at a family friends house. Candy is involved with Amway and had some business to do with her friend and I got the vague impression that I was being shown off :)

The first day, Allen, Da Liang and I took the car to be repaired and then went sight seeing. The chinese seem very civilized about this. We would walk around for half an hour then stop to eat or drink something... Take lots of photos (I have millions to post and finally a place to post from so expect loads of photos in the next few days)... then repeat... We had another group dinner, at which I tried snales (again, thanks to Allens encouragement ;) The taste was quite nice, but I don't really like the texture...

The following day we all (including Candy) wen't to visit Candy's mum, sister and brother. Had a lovely lunch with her mum. Then visitid big brother and then big sister. I didn't quite understand this. We didn't seem to settle anywhere. WE just sort of jumped from house to house. Got to tour some really extravagant (by Chinese standards) houses and drink a little tea. Then whisk off to the next house. We all (except big brother who rode is motor bike) crammed into the car and went to a community college where Da Liang had been a Phys Ed teacher many years ago. We visited the local leaning tower of... not sure what it was called ;) ... then drove out to a farm house in the boonies for a rather wild goose dinner... Was very good... I even liked the blood Tofu made with Goose blood... although again, the texture was a bit strange... This dinner did my head in, because big brother took significant advantage of his position as head of the family to induce a lot of drinking :) Again, I had to play the foriegner card after a small bottle of wine (more like sweet whisky)... Got drunk for the second time on this trip... and paid for it the next morning!

Day three, was introduced to one of Candy's associates who owns a kindergarden and offered a job teaching english. I really wish I had not been hungover for this meeting! Everyone was very understanding, but I still hate feeling like that! We had a big group lunch and headed out to the University that looks brandspanking new (with loads of empty dorm rooms.) for a bit of a tour. Part of the job there if I take it would include teaching at the Uni. It's all a bit nebulouse, but also sounds like a very good deal... Business is conducted in a very round about way here...

Then back home, I packed and got the bus back to Hangzhou. Had a really hard time finding a good hotel, ended up paying more than I wanted to, but that apparently is just how Hangzhou is...

After a really good nights sleep, did some chours, then got the tourist bus to to the Dragon Well. Probably my favorite Chinese tea is Dragon Well (Lung Ching) which got it's name from the local well. Part of the mythology of this tea states that it tastes best if you brew it with water from the dragon well. The well apparently got it's name because the riples on the surface of the well look like a dragon... I was rather dissapointed that the well is now too pulted to make tea with :( but I washed my hands and face with the water and tooks ome photos. I also met a Taiwanese couple on the bus (Esther and Allen are their English names) who I hung out with for a few hours. We went to a local tea house and sampled the tea... and watched a guy making the tea in large wok. Unfortunately all of the tea I tried here was not very good... although it was very fresh, which I enjoyed experiencing.

From the well we headed to a place called Tiger-Leaping (I think) which is another well surrounded by a large garden. This well is not poluted. They demonstrate this by filling a bowl so full that the water raises about half a centimeter above the rim (due to surface tension) and then they float coins on top of the water! This is now supposed to be the best water to make dragon well tea with... The water was very fresh, but the tea again was mediocer.

Allen, Esther and I went our seperate ways after the Tiger-Leaping. I headed to the China National Tea Museum, which is incredibly informative. Lovely grounds and everything is in Chinese and English. I took about 100 photos mostly of the descriptive text in the exhibits :)

Was a really lovely day despite not finding any good Dragon Well tea. The following day I wandered around town, met an American guy and English gal in the Foriegn Language bookshop and wandered around together for a while. Got some tips about teaching English in China. Then hooked up with Allen and Cindy for dinner and a stroll down a rebuilt classical chinese shopping street... Said sorrowfull goodbyes and went to bed...

This morning I took a double-decker train to Shianghi. Spent the afternoon walking around town. It has been a really action packed few weeks and I'm ready to take it easy for a few days before heading to Japan. I expect I'll hit some of the tourist sites here in Shianghi and try to ferret out some good tea houses. But also take a break from all the input :)

Loads of love to you all!

Posted by binduwavell at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2003

From China with Love

Let's see, where did I leave off? Raoping... Well, from a purely tea perspective it was a dud. I did see some tea growing along the road on the bus trips there and back, and I'm pretty sure that after an hour walk to get out of town I was able to look at some tea bushes, they looked like tea, but did not taste like it... Go figure...

On the other hand I had a couple of really cool experiences, I got there at about 2pm and had not eaten lunch so I found a road stall and had a lovely time phrase-chatting with the folks their... After about an hour of fried vegies, very basic tea and really good humored company, they refused to let me pay even though I begged them several times... So that was a really nice intro to the town.

From lunch I made my way to a nearby hill... it was a strange piece of city geography a very steep quite high hill in the middle of town. It seemed like a great vantage point to scope which direction I should head for my tea adventure... At the top were several large (10 meters in diameter) concrete domes... they were only about 3 meters high. On these were painted disney characters donald duck was really good! There were also three young guys who were lounging in a bamboo hut (they looked a little like friendly thugs)... I tried to figre out if the area was a bar, tea house (there were a bunch of tea pots and heaters laying around) or a dance scene... They were more interested in their game of cards, but they did offer me some really nice tea (the best I had had in China so far.)

After not very long, I got bored with watching these guys and their card game and headed down the mountain and in the direction that looked to provide the closes vegitation. After an hour I managed to get to the fields and had a bit of a stomp (carefully) around, and possible even saw some tea. Seemed like it was mostly salad greens though. On the way I had my first moon cake, which to my delight did not have an egg yolk in the middle and was really delicious!

That's the high points for Raoping, the next day I headed to Xiamen. I stayed on an island on the west edge of the city, called Gulang Yu. This island, is was where many of the foreign consulates were for this part of china. Lots of european architecture and they have recently done quite a lot of really nice landscaping on the northern edge of the island.

I spent about 5 days here and in Xiamen proper. The island was lovely, I'm not sure about the dimensions, but it took about 2 1/2 hours to walk around. The north is mostly landscaped and the south is mostly beaches. I finally found tea (which Fujian, the province where Xiamen is located, is famous for). Lots and lots of tea. Every 3rd or 4th shop seemed to be a tea shop and I had some very nice Tiguanyin (Iron Godess of Mercy Oolong).

I also visited the local aquarium and did a day trip to the TenFu Tea Museum in Zhan'Pu (sp?). I had an amazing time at the museum. Since it was in the middle of the week, I pretty much had the place to myself. According to them, it's the largest tea museum in the world. We (myself and 5 chinese business men who were the only other guests there) watched a presentation on traditional Chinese tea ceremony and one on Japanese tea ceremony. The Chinese one was simple and very nice. The Chinese one was put on by about 8 girls with very new looking period costumes who did the whole thing coriographed (sp?) to a rather nice classical Chinese folk sound track. They served us 3 types of tea, all of wich were delicious (well at least two out of three were delicous and one was really interesting, if not quite delicious - it was bitter tea.) My guide who spent the whole time with me at no extra cost was very helpfull and informative. She showed me the cave where they age their Pu Ehr teas and we walked around their lovely lake that is fed by a local mountain spring.

Unfortunately I missed the last bus back to Xiamen (mostly because I was too obstinate to accept a taxi-motorcycle ride to the bus station and just had to walk.) I got there and watched the last bus leaving :( So I paid $25 for the 2 hour ride back to Xiamen in a Taxi... My credit card went into fraud mode, which it seems to do with each new country I reach, and I had an unbeleivable horendous time trying to call the credit card company to get the card re-enabled.... I don't want to remember what else, but there were a few other things, that evening and the following morning. Definately got me in the mood to leave dodge.

From Xiamen, I headed up to WuYi Shan, which is where I am now. It is a very famous area for Chinese tourists, because of the lovely scenery, local Buddhist sites, and some really good tea. I had a guide (who had excellent English skills) show me around today. We went to see the King of Tea plants (as far as I can tell this is a little like King Arthurs grave or Billy the Kids final resting place... i.e. there are quite a few of them;). And walked about 6 or 7 kilometers through really lovely craggy mountains and tea fields. Then ended up at a Tea Factory where I enjoyed some very fine Rock Tea! So named because it grows out of rocks :)

That about brings me up to-date. Internet connections are hard to come by here, although they seem to be fast and cheap when I find them (if not completely reliable.) Also a quick note about my hotel. I'm staying in a really great hotel for $10 a night. It's a little funky, and definately looks like it has seen better days, but for some reason it has a large amount of charm! I love it, cold water and all ;) The view of the tea garden and the lovely sound of frogs and crickets out the window don't hurt either :)

All the best to all of you wherever you are!

Posted by binduwavell at 02:49 AM | Comments (1)

September 11, 2003

The road to China

OK, it was the rail to china, but it doesn't sound quite as nice!

Had a bit of a hecktick time replying to emails then getting to the train station at the last minute to check through customes and get on the train to Zhaoqing (pronounced dzow-ching). I ended up with a 6 person compartment to myself. Was a really nice clean train. There were quite a few pretty young Chinese girls in uniforms, sort of stewardesses who came around and served tea and checked tickets, etc. I ended up having long chats with a few of the passengers and one of the "stewardesses". The journey was over in no time (4 hours felt like half an hour.)

I'm incredibly glad I have a Mandarin phrase book with me! It is very exciting communicating with people with very few words in common (maybe 4 or 5 words)... It is also very tiring!

I spent the first day in Zhaoqing drinking tea and exploring town, lots of big modern shopping centers, lots of really run down 60's ish concrete attrocities that seem to be how the Chinese are able to have populations of 4-6 million people in a town that is maybe twice the size of Bouler (130K people last time I checked) and lots of older maybe early 1900's brick buildings... All sort of tumbling on top of eachother.

It took 2 hours in the tea shop to finally explain that I wanted to try Zhaoqing tea, not Fujian tea or Taiwan tea, since I'm going to Fujina in a week and Taiwan after that. I have to say that although Zhaoqing tea was interesting and I did eventually find one that's quite nice, most of it is not at all to my taste!!! One of them tasted almost exactly like the Alfalfa hay Jackie and I used to feed the rabbits. One of them tasted like tea that was brewed in a coffee pot (with residual coffee...) Yuck! :)

In the evening I discovered a rather cool fountain near the hotel that squirts synchronised with classical and marching music. Had lots of colored lights too. My guess is that the show was in honor of the Mid-Autumn festival, which is going on at the moment. In Zhaoqing, everybody and their mother's brother's cousin was out buying moon cakes, which must be a seasonal delicacy. Actually today is the official day for the festival, the only thing I've seen today is people burning "money"... Sheets of paper with fancy gold writing on that I believe is supposed to reresent money to pay of the spirits or something...

The following day, I went to Dangu Shan (a really nice local mountain/nature preserve.) Bumped into two really sweat brits who were in town with a group of university students on a photography course. Nigel, Penny and I ended up spending the afternoon walking through the wood and saw a bunch of realy nice waterfalls (none quite as spectacular as the one in Luang Prabang though :)...

Yesterday I took the train to Shantou (pronounced san-tao -- not dao). I got in at 11pm and took a room in the first hotel I found down town. It was pretty grotty and there were lots of business men with pretty young women checking in at 11pm... So I spent this morning looking around for a different hotel. I ended up in a much nicer place that's run by a Chinese/Thai couple. For only $12 a night... Totally worth it!!! I guess I should wait and see tonight, but it feels much nicer and the staff speak more english and are more willing to work with me messing up my Mandarin :)

I also purchased bus tickets to Xiamen (pronounced shamen) for the 13th. And sussed out how to get to Raoping (pronounced Jow-ping... go figure) which is where most of the local tea here is grown and processed. I don't have any contacts so it's quite likely that I won't get see in any factories, but I figure I'll go snooping around and see if I can charm my way into some tea estates and factories... it's really a bit of an experiement. The other option is to call folks and tell them I want to purchase tea, but I need to see things first... I don't really want to do that though.

My time at this cafe just ran out, so I'll check out now.

Lots of Love!

Posted by binduwavell at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2003

Finally quitting Thailand

(And finished "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" :)

The last week in Bangkok was really nice. Did lots of walking around different areas of town, retail therapy (is there a different phrase if you're just looking?), watched a few movies, started reading "Wild Swans: Three Daugters of China", listened to a lot of music...

Yesterday evening I finally made it to China (Hong Kong is China right? :) Had a really easy flight on China Airlines, an hour bus ride into Kowloon (just north of Central Hong Kong) and found a TINY single for $18/night! Ouch! It's very expensive here compared to India/Thailand/Laos... not that I'm complaining. So far it has been a very cullinary experience!

Last night I found a vegie place (you know the kind with all the fake meats).. Had greens with beans :) there was some kind of fake meat that I've never had before, that tasted/textured (is that a word? :) a bit like pumpernikle (sp?)... sounds strange, but was really nice! When I got back to the Guesthouse and checked the news (Did you know news is an acronym for North, East, West South? The order that mail couches arrived in London every morning in the 1800's)... But I digress... on the news they said that there is a grade 1 tornado [update: oops, it was a typhoon, not a tornado] warning... wasn't clear if it was a grade 1 tornado or grade 1 warning... turns out that it's now a grade 8 warning and that there were 140 mph winds in southern Taiwan yesterday from this thing... Apparently grade 8 is pretty dire and most of the shops have closed down... I'm so glad I'm staying on the 14th floor! So far I'm not that worried, it's raining hard out there, but not much wind, will see how things progress. (I'll keep you all posted if it get's freaky!)

Anyway, back to food! This morning, the breakfast joint I was looking for had vanished (I want real time updates to my Lonely Planet!) and there was a Starbucks near-by so... damn... had a blueberry muffin.. mmm... note to self, Starbucks in the US has bad tea, same is true for Starbucks in Hong Kong ;) Then while comparing guest houses, I fell upon a really nice tea shop!

I spent most of the morning trying different teas at Sun Sing Tea here in Kowloon. Nothing spectacular, although a couple of rather nice teas. Too bad the prices are the same as they are in the states... I hope the farmers don't charge this much! ;)

Had Dim-Sum for lunch, was a bit hard communicating that I don't eat pork or beef (horror of all horrors!!!) but it was lovely and now I've found a super fast internet cafe just outside my guest-house! And they have web cams and everything!

I'm planning on spending about 6 days here. I need to get a visa for Taiwan so will do that here, and hope to research and experience tea... Already found one place I've never heard of that has an Oolong tea that tastes like Lychees... quite nice!

Hope you are all very well!!!


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 02:14 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2003

Goodbye Laos

'Bout time for an update! After leaving Luang Prabang (LP), I spent 10 days in Vang Vieng(VV) which is about halfway (distance) between LP and Vientien. I have spent the last couple of days in Vientien, and I'm headed to Bangkok, for a week, tonight.

Now the longer version: The bus ride from LP to VV took about 6 hours, winding down out of the mountains. There were lots of folks with machine guns walking along the road. It was hard to tell if they were Laos Army, folks that are up to no good, political fighters, or just farmers/hunters that are up for a little sport with Bamby and a machine gun! We even had a guy on the bus with an AK47... I think he was the local "sky-marshal".

Anyway, the journey was uneventfull and I really enjoyed VV. One of the disadvantages of comming down from the mountains was that the weather got imensely more overcast (most of everyday was grey!) I didn't let it get me down, although I did spend a few days in my hotel room fiddling with my computer, because I didn't feel like roaming around... The town is very setup for tourists, millions of restaurants and guesthouses... Lots of signage for adventure treks, tubing, caving, hiking, biking, etc. It's a little grating visually, but the people are really nice, no agressive selling, no folks pretending to be friendly so they can get something from you. The families in town seem like they are happy to benefit from the travelers, but they are also quite happy to do their own thing without getting to caught up the money money money money stick that happens in so many other tourist places.

I spent several days, tubing down the local river, and one very memorable day swiming into a cave under a mountain! There is light for the first 10-20m, then it gets pitch black. It took me about 4 or 5 attempts to get the courage to go into the dark cave (with my headlamp.) And then 2 or 3 more before I made it all the way to the back. It's funny how one can imagine all sorts of monsters lurking under a mountain :) There is something so exilerating about facing a fear and comming out the otherside, no worse for wear... or in my case with no pads left on my fingers (but it only took 3 days for them to heal :) The lime stone walls acted like sandpaper on my finger tips so when I finally got out I had blood oozing from the tips of all of my fingers and thumbs... and no actual cuts... just sanded pads! Yikes... Anyway, a few days worth of Iodine and very sensitive fingers was a worthwhile price to pay, I had sooo much fun!

I've now been in Vientien for a couple of days, it's still overcast and raining even more than it did in VV. So I've spent quite a lot of time sitting and reading (currently reading Confessions of an English Opium Eater) in posh Europeanish cafes and lovely streat side Lao shops. I also spent the afternoon yesterday visiting a local sculpture park. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to where the sculptures were placed, just tons of them from both the Hindu and Buddhist pantheon. In someways, it seems quite pointless, somehow that made it even cooler. This guy went to Vietnam and studied with some Hindu guru, then came back and spent years constructing all these concrete sculptures in a lovely little park along the Mekong.

So tonight, I'm planning on taking a night bus to Bangkok. My ticket for Hong Kong curently leaves on the 1st of September, but I'll try and move it up a bit, doesn't matter that much tough if I can't I'm happy to hang out in Bang Kok for a week.

Hope you are all well!

Love,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2003

Luang Phabang Arrival

Arrived safe and sound in Luang Phabang, Laos. As usual had many people trying to rip me off at the airport :( but found a reasonable guest house and as usual only got slightly ripped off for the ride into town from the airport.

I have been out searching for a better place to stay. One good prospect, but I'll still look some more in the morning. Any suggestions from you crazy travelers would be welcomed :) Not sure if it's a Sunday thing here, but most of the shops are closed... very strange feeling, I hope the town "wakes up" tomorrow!

Posted by binduwavell at 05:51 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2003

On The Road Again

Just a quick note to let you all know that I'm on the road again. I'm leaving for Chiang Mai today. Will stop for the night on Koh Samui and then fly up north tomorrow morning.

I feel really at home here and I'm going to miss a lot of people :( I'm also feeling ready to get on with the journey, to explore strange new worlds and brave new people ;) I'm really looking forward to taking a Thai cooking class and doing a little treking before heading over to Laos.

Lots of love to you all!

Posted by binduwavell at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2003

I Karalot

I spent 8 days in Munnar, which was beautifull! The first morning I was there I took a Rickshaw to a local National Park where they have Nilgiri Tahr (some kind of Goat/Dear that is only found in that park and in Switzarland.) I also went to a tea factory and saw the whole CTC process... Damn! What a way to treat such a lovely plant :)

I met a couple (Dave & Tara) from England in Munnar and we spent quite a few days hiking together, seeing sights, etc. We traveled back to Kochin a few days ago and have been taking in the sights here. Yesterday we took a day trip to Athrapally where there's a great double waterfall (pictures of waterfall and more from around Kochin will be forthcomming :)

I'm taking a 3:35am flight to Delhi tonight so that I can take care of some Visa stuff and check out the sights up north. It has been so wonderfull here, I'm sure I'll miss it and especially I'll miss Dave and Tara's company. And I'm looking forward to seeing new things. I hope it isn't too hot and if it is, I'll head up into the hills (Manali, here I come :)

On a tangential note, I'm concerned about the SARS issue. Esp. since I'm planning on going to Hong Kong in 3 months and to Bangkok in 1 month... I really hope that this gets sorted quickly! Yikes!!! I also hope that we get better information on how to prevent infection and how to treat infection if it arrises.

Lots of Love to you all!

-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 03:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2003

Munnar Landing

I got up at 5am to catch a bus to Munnar (hill station in Kerala) this morning. When I got to the bus station, they said, oh the bus has been canceled today... Shesh... So I got a taxi :)

It is sooo beautufull here! About 220 square miles of tea plantation. All of it is owned by TATA. Looking out over miles and miles of tea is really quite beautufull (as cultivated landscapes go.) There are also some lovely big trees with purple flowers (I'll try and get some photos :) in the middle of the tea gardens.

The village is based around a baazar. Lots of fruits and veg, etc. There is a private tourist info office run by Mr. Joseph Iyer (sp?) who also has some really lovely cottages on his property outside of town. He's a historian by training, although he worked on Electronics (TVs, Radios, etc) for 40 something years. After he retired, he setup shop as a tourist info guy. He gets rave reviews in all the big tourist guides (Lonely Planet, Let's Go, Rough Guide, etc.) Anyway, I'm staying in a very nice (simple) cottage on his property. There is a really lovely garden with roses and other lovely flowers... How cool!

Today, I'm exploring town, tomorrow, I'm planning on heading out to visit some tea and coffee plantations.

Lots of Love!


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 12:37 AM | Comments (1)

March 20, 2003

Photo Galleries

I finally got it together to publish some Photo Galleries from my trip.

Hope you all enjoy!

Posted by binduwavell at 06:07 AM | Comments (5)

March 18, 2003

Kerala with a good book and a cup of chai

I'm not really in the mood to write a travel update (see my previous post.) But if I don't do it now, I think I'll forget some of the more juicy recent stuff so here goes a short (hopefully) travel update.

Had a lovely time in Goa. Good company, beaches (Vagator was my favorite that I visited), food, markets and motorcycle rides up the coast.

I took the train to Kerla because I hoped it would be even sweeter, but alas, I think my expectations were inflated. Or maybe I just haven't seen the right parts of Kerla.

I hit a woman who was begging from me... I didn't know I had it in me... Actually I pushed her, but still... She kept grabbing my clothes really hard and demanding money. Every time I shouted at her to leave me alone (I did start by requesting nicely) she would smile an evil smile, look at my crotch and lick her lips... Or say she loved me and call me her husband... Her husband/boyfriend played the good cop, he kept saying sorry and asking for money... Every time I walked away she would grab me or step in front of me... I have always thought that in such a situation I would just be incredibly clear verbally... and it would work... I was and it didn't... Yuck!

OK now that I have that off my chest, I'll tell you the better stuff. The spice and rice markets are nice, but not as "amazing" as I had hoped. You know how a trip can be made by the people you meet? Well, I met a really sweet couple from Canada in Kochi. I had a nasty belly and went to a fancy hotel for some comfort food, and bumped into this couple. We ended up talking for 5 hours. Then having dinner together the following night. They have been teaching English in Taiwan and Japan... Hmm... I wonder... (they gave me some good tips in case I want to make a go of it, sounds quite tempting actually.)

Now, I'm staying in a nice house (Dilip's cousin's shared rental) in a small village on the south east edge of the backwaters. Actually its about 1km from the backwaters,and there isn't much access. The village is about 1.5km away and doesn't have much to offer in the way of stores, but the people feel very friendly and open.

The rental is shared by some associates of Dilip's cousin. They (Jacob and Bobby) have been incredibly generous in introducing me to the local area, people, food, etc and helping to plan activities here.

I got back from a 22-hour house-boat trip this morning. Which was lovely in some ways, and a bit crazt in others (the engine broke down and took 3 hours to repair and then the captain crashed into a wall at low speed this morning and bent the front of the boat.) The food was great, the sunset and sunrise were staggering. The two guys on the boat Rajesh and Saji were very nice, although I wish we would have been able to communicate better.

This afternoon, Bobby told me about the GW's 48-hour deadline... I fear for us all.

Posted by binduwavell at 10:36 AM | Comments (1)

January 09, 2003

Friends in Mumbai

I met two really nice women from Canada at the hotel my second day in Mumbai. They are both studying Occupational Therapy and are here on their way to a placement in the boonies in southern India. We spent the day together today figuring out how to deal with our respective train journeys at VT station (I think we won a world record for how many times you can be bounced between two queues).

After sorting our tickets, we went in search of a big market called Mortha (sp?). As we got near this little guy attached himself to us and wouldn't take no for an answer. "I work in the market" he kept saying. We kept asking him to leave us alone and he would go off sulking and then as soon as we would turn our backs, there he would be! Yikes, eventually we asked someone for help. Our "savior" said two or three words to the little guy and "poof", he vanished... amazing, I want to know what was said!!! That was a cool trick.

We walked through an amazing fruit market. Too bad we can't eat raw stuff, it smelled so good. We found an alley that had tons of sari stalls. And then a building that was filled with people selling dresses.

Tamiza wanted to get a couple more outfits for the placement so we went through the whole bartering processing with 3 or 4 different vendors. They appear to ascribe to the following marketing strategy: Overwhealm the heck out of people and they will make bad/hasty decisions. Amazing.... Dress after dress after dress being thrown down (esp ones that didn't meet the requirements...) At the 3rd or 4th stall this sweedish guy shows up looks at a couple dresses and proceeds with the most amazing bargaining process. I really thought a fight was going to break out at the end... It was good for us, because we got nearly as good of a deal without having to fight very hard :)

The three of us went out for a very hot Indian meal at my current favorite Indian restaurant ever :) Apoorva in the Fort area of Mumbai.

...

I left for Pune the following day (10th Jan)

Posted by binduwavell at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2003

First real day in Mumbai

I wasn't expecting to have as much culture shock as I do (been there done that syndrome :) Today is better than yesterday. Just went out and found the tourist info office on foot which was a good experience. I was planning on hanging out in Mumbai for a music festival (big sitar competition) that was supposed to be today and tomorrow. Turns out that it was rescheduled. So not sure if I'll stay until the 11th as planned or try and get to Pune sooner.

I'm off to the train station to sort out trains to Pune (not sure how far in advance tickets need to be purchased.)

Posted by binduwavell at 11:04 PM | Comments (1)

Arrived in Mumbai

I have arrived in Mumbai! Got to my hotel and slept for 12 hours... Yikes... More later, I must get some food :)

Posted by binduwavell at 06:18 AM | Comments (4)

January 05, 2003

Off to see the Rajas

I'm leaving home today. I have a one night stay with my sister in Oxford and then I get on a plane to India tomorrow morning.

I've made a reasonable start on a timeline and a bunch of entries and photos for my time in England which I'll post in the next few days.

Posted by binduwavell at 04:55 AM | Comments (2)

December 02, 2002

Typical Weather

My journey has officially started.

I couldn't help starting a post about England with a dig at the weather :) Its been cold and wet... amazing :)

Jess and I got up at 3:30am on Thanksgiving morning (bless her) for the short ride to the SuperShuttle. I slept most of the way to DIA which was much needed after only 2 hours of sleep. Spent quite a while getting through security at DIA, but eventually got to my gate and onto a plane to Phoenix. Had a short stop there and was onto a new plane to JFK in New York. More sleep, yay! Had to collect my baggage and take a bus to a different terminal for Air India.

I sat opposite a man who had just arrived from Palestine and had no English… I’m not quite sure why, but I was very touched by him. We parted with a shared namaste.

Goto the Air India counter and there was a line that was at least 3 times longer than any airline line have ever seen before. It went on for ever and ever and ever and ever!!!

At first I was a little put out by the fact that there wasn’t an airline representative there letting people know if they could expect to get on their flights, etc. Then I remembered India and just let go, no need to get all bent out of shape, just wait and see. Sure enough I was about the 3rd from last person in line and it took over 2 and a half hours to get to the counter. At which point the final people were all upgraded to first class. Totally cool!!!! It was a really lovely flight that ended up only being about 1 hour late into Heathrow.

My dad was right there to pick me up and, after some searching for the car, we drove home. It was a little hard staying awake the first day, but I managed until about 8:30.

Even though I’m officially on my trip, the whole thing is still feeling a little normal. I was here for Christmas last year… I hope this all sinks in soon. I’m about 99% sure it will by the time I get to India…

Peace,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2002

Harry Potter

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Overacting. But seriously… The Chamber of Secrets is my least favorite of the 4 books so far. Given that, I think they did an awesome job! In spite of Ron Weasly’s overacting, Hermione Granger and Moaning Mertle were great as was Harry! Hermione really got under my skin in the first film so this was a significant improvement. The CG was MUCH better than in the first film. Dobbie and the Basalisk looked very realistic and the Quidditch match has this whole bludger chase scene that totally reminded me of the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars. The plot was significantly modified compared with the first film. In general, I think this was a good thing, however there were still a few awkward transitions. I give Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets a B+.

Posted by binduwavell at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2002

A Little Pre Trip

I’m heading down to Albuquerque to see my mum for about a week. I’ll be stopping at Valley View Hot Springs on the way and will post pictures as I can.

Posted by binduwavell at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2002

Vaccines

I started out researching Rose Medical Center in Denver. A friend told me that they would do a travel consultation and the shots for pretty cheap.

I ended up using Passport Health they weren't quite as cheap as Rose, but they price matched and they were much closer to home.

A friend (Jenna) called Passport to see if they would price match and they said it had been a one time thing :( She had some good news though, sounds like Denver Health will do the vaccines (not Jap E.) for even cheaper than Rose.

The vaccines I ended up getting were:

  • Hep A
  • Hep B - two shots will get the third when I return
  • Polio
  • Typhoid - oral, live vaccine
  • Tetanus/Diphtheria
  • Meningitis

I did not get:

  • Rabies - I can be treated after a bite
  • Japanese Encephalitis - very low risk in my itinerary, very high price
Posted by binduwavell at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)

Tickets

I finalized my tickets, I'm leaving for England on November 28th! I'll be spending a month with my family. Then it will be off to India for a pilgrimage of sorts.

I ended up getting my ticket through STA Travel. Turns out that the tickets they got come from airtreks.com who I had also received a quote from (I think airtreks.com is linked from the BootsnAll web site).

Michael the travel guy I am working with at STA has put a lot of extra effort into finding out about visas, etc. and the price was basically the same as what airtreks quoted. I also tried to get a ticket through Via Travel (here in Boulder), I waited 3 or 4 business days and they were not able to get me a price estimate so I took them off my list.

The ticket I'm getting has legs to all of the countries I want to visit (Denver to London, London to Bombay, overland to Delhi, Delhi to Bangkok, Bangkok to Hong Kong, overland to Shanghai, Shanghai to Tokyo, overland to Osaka and Osaka to Taipei. All dates are changeable at no cost (except the first one flying out of the US). It ends up in Taipei with no forward leg so I can either get a ticket home or I can continue on through Bali, New Zealand and Australia.

Sounds like I'm going to need a forward ticket out of Taipei before I get there. Will probably get it in Tokyo.

Posted by binduwavell at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

Travel Planning

I have not physically departed (mentally I'm not so sure :). Much of my time has been spent planning the trip.

Posted by binduwavell at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)
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